Famous Scrambling Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Scrambling poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous scrambling poems. These examples illustrate what a famous scrambling poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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A Hermit Thrush

...Nothing's certain. Crossing, on this longest day, 
the low-tide-uncovered isthmus, scrambling up 
the scree-slope of what at high tide
will be again an island,

to where, a decade since well-being staked 
the slender, unpremeditated claim that brings us 
back, year after year, lugging the 
makings of another picnic—

the cucumber sandwiches, the sea-air-sanctified
fig newtons—there's no knowing what the slamming 
seas, the gales of yet ano...Read more of this...
by Clampitt, Amy


Dream Song 41: If we sang in the wood (and Death is a German expert)

...but animal; cats mew,
horses scream, man sing.

Or: men pslam. Man palms his ears and moans.
Death is a German expert. Scrambling, sitting,
spattering, we hurry.
I try to. Odd & trivial, atones
somehow for my escape a bullet splitting
my trod-on instep, fiery.

The cantor bubbled, rattled. The Temple burned.
Lurch with me! phantoms of Varshava. Slop!
When I used to be,
who haunted, stumbling, sewers, my sacked shop,
roofs, a dis-world ai! Death was a German
home-country....Read more of this...
by Berryman, John

Fra Lippo Lippi

...unterpane and coverlet, 
All the bed-furniture--a dozen knots, 
There was a ladder! Down I let myself, 
Hands and feet, scrambling somehow, and so dropped, 
And after them. I came up with the fun 
Hard by Saint Laurence, hail fellow, well met,-- 
Flower o' the rose, 
If I've been merry, what matter who knows? 
And so as I was stealing back again 
To get to bed and have a bit of sleep 
Ere I rise up to-morrow and go work 
On Jerome knocking at his poor old breast 
With his gre...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Mulga Bills Bicycle

...he Dead Man's Creek. 

It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box: 
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks, 
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground, 
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound. 
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree, 
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be; 
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek 
It made a leap of twenty feet int...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

Rahel to Varnhagen

...ty, 
I knew the fear was his. If I had failed him 
And flown away from him, I should have lost
Ingloriously my wings in scrambling back, 
And found them arms again. If he had struck me 
Not only with his eyes but with his hands, 
I might have pitied him and hated love, 
And then gone mad. I, who have been so strong—
Why don’t you laugh?—might even have done all that. 
I, who have learned so much, and said so much, 
And had the commendations of the great 
For one who rules her...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


The Hard Times In Elfland

...neath the startled mother's arm.

And so was still: what time we saw
A foot hang down the fireplace! Then,
With painful scrambling scratched and raw,
Two hands that seemed like hands of men

Eased down two legs and a body through
The blazing fire, and forth there came
Before our wide and wondering view
A figure shrinking half with shame,

And half with weakness. "Sir," I said,
-- But with a mien of dignity
The seedy stranger raised his head:
"My friends, I'm Santa Claus," sai...Read more of this...
by Lanier, Sidney

The Walrus and the Carpenter

...
And thick and fast they came at last,
   And more, and more, and more—
All hopping through the frothy waves,
   And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
   Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
   Conveniently low;
And all the little Oysters stood
   And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
   "To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
   And cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

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